A number of motorized golf bag carts have been developed to carry a golfer's bag while he or she walks a golf course. These carts have taken a number of different configurations, but have generally fallen into two broad categories, namely motor and battery attachments for existing golf bag hand carts, and self contained, complete, motorized carts. Somewhat representative of the first type is that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,198 to Chris Kappas, and entitled DETACHABLE POWER UNIT FOR A GOLF BAG CART. In the Kappas patent, an articulated frame includes a battery storage area and a separate motor compartment holding a motor which is positioned immediately above a single drive wheel. The entire frame is removably attachable to a standard two-wheeled golf bag hand cart to convert it to a motorized operation. The drive wheel is chain driven and has no steering capability. Other, similar designs are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,597 to Carmichael, U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,776 to Richard Weirick and U.S. Pat. No. 5,232,065 to James Cotton. Numerous examples of self-contained, motorized golf bag carts also exist. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,612 to Morris Weiss is a four wheel design with a motor driving the front pair of wheels which are steered by an articulating handle. U.S. Pat. No. 3,952,821 to Charles Craven is a simple two wheel motorized design in which a motor drives a single axle positioned between the two wheels. U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,583 to Edwin Nemeth is a three motorized cart in which a battery compartment is attached to a central, elongate frame and a pair of independent motors are attached to respective front drive wheels. Other examples include U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,875 to Robert Clune, U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,696 to Lee Carter, U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,693 to Masao Nakai et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,103 to James Cartmell, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,167,389, 5,180,023 and 5,749,424 to Eric Reimers.
The prior art motorized golf bag carts, as represented by the above patents, seem to suffer from one of two problems. If they are stable, four wheeled designs, they do not collapse enough to be easily stored and transported. Conversely, the three wheeled designs, although they can generally be collapsed to a smaller storage configuration, are much less stable on sloping or uneven terrain.
It is clear, then, that a need exists for a motorized golf bag cart which incorporates a stable, four wheel design with a relatively wide wheel base, and yet is easily collapsible to a size which allows for efficient storage and transport.